


Windows to the Soul

by bettername2come



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Superheroes, F/M, Fantasy, Just not in the same way, Lian Yu still happened, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, actually you know what? Lian Yu is basically the same, season 1 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettername2come/pseuds/bettername2come
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver Queen has never met Felicity Smoak, but she's always been there. A feeling, a sense pulling at the back of his mind even in the darkest of times. Especially at the darkest of times. </p>
<p>Felicity Smoak is shocked to learn that the nightmares and visions she experienced for years are real. They just aren't hers.</p>
<p>AKA the <i>In Your Eyes</i> AU that nobody asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the trailer for the movie I based this on. It's on Netflix. I highly recommend it as it's far greater than anything I'm going to come up with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coK8muKco_k

_January, 2003  
_

All right, the spoiled rich boy skipping school to hit the slopes was a terrible cliché. But to Oliver the fresh powder at the ski resort made whatever hell he’d catch from his dad about this later completely worth it. It’s not like it really mattered. His dad had already bought his way into a college worthy of the Queen legacy. Who cared if he missed a day of calculus and _Macbeth _? It’s not like he was going to need to know any of that for the real world.__

Neither did Tommy Merlyn, making him the perfect companion for this unscheduled three day weekend. At least until he started telling Oliver to jump off the damn ski lift. 

“You should do it. See those girls back there,” Tommy said gesturing to the girls in the car behind them. They whispered to themselves when Tommy smiled at them and waved back. “They would think you were a total badass. C’mon, don’t you want to make this trip worth it?” 

“Hey, I can get girls without trying to get myself killed. You want to impress them, you do it.” 

“Well, I would, but I don’t have your athleticism.” Tommy flashed his grin once more. “Besides, someone’s got to talk you up to them on the way back down because let’s face it – the talking? That’s more my area of expertise.” 

Oliver glared back at him. 

“See? You didn’t even have a witty retort for that insult.” 

Oliver looked down. They weren’t that high off the ground. Fifteen feet maybe. He gripped the seat of the ski lift and braced himself for what he was about to do. “You know what they say. Talk is cheap. And one thing the Queen family is not, is cheap.” And with that he jumped off the lift. 

Only something went wrong on the way down. He missed the landing, falling on his side and rolling down the slope, far off the beaten track and into the trees. Panic settled in his stomach as the trunk filled his vision, and then he heard as much as felt the crack of his head colliding with the trunk of the pine tree. As if from far away, Oliver heard Tommy shouting his name. He jumped off the chair himself, making a perfect landing before coming after Oliver. 

_Smug bastard_ , Oliver thought. And then confusion set in as his vision blurred and suddenly he wasn’t looking at a snowy mountain, but a classroom with a whiteboard. Puzzled as he was, he was grateful for the brief blast of warmth he felt before he lost consciousness. 

* 

_Las Vegas, Nevada_

_Same Day_

Felicity tried to hide her sigh of disappointment as Mrs. DeVane asked the class another question about _Julius Caesar_. It wasn’t even that she disliked the play; she just disliked having to listen to her classmates’ inane responses (or more accurately lack of responses) because it inevitably led to the English teacher desperately staring at Felicity for some sign that she was getting through to at least one of her students and put Felicity in the awkward position of looking like a know-it-all in front of her classmates. It was hard enough being the thirteen-year-old computer genius at a Las Vegas public high school. The last thing she wanted was to draw _more_ attention to herself. 

“Felicity!” Mrs. DeVane called. 

Felicity jerked up in her seat. “Um, yes?” 

“Could you answer the question please?” 

“Oh, yeah, sure…um, what was it again?” Felicity asked to the snickers of some of her classmates. _Yeah, sure, laugh it up. I hope it’s still this funny when you’re asking me for answers on the homework._

Mrs. DeVane repeated the question and Felicity answered it correctly, to the disappointment of her classmates. Mrs. DeVane smiled and moved back to the whiteboard. Felicity resisted the urge to sigh with relief as she let her mind wonder. 

Suddenly, Felicity felt a chill in the air. _God, how high had they turned up the AC? _It must have been seventy degrees outside. There was no reason for it to be this cold. That was one of the only benefits to living in Nevada. Felicity reached into her backpack and pulled out her sweatshirt, wrapping it tightly around herself. She felt another gust of air as her stomach dropped. She felt like she was falling and then she was, dropping out of her chair and falling to the classroom floor, her glasses sliding down her nose as fell. Distantly she heard her teacher calling her name, but she didn’t see her. She was rolling, falling, spinning down a snow-covered hill. Pain exploded in her head as she slammed into a tree, and then her vision went dark.__

So much for not drawing attention to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

_April 2007  
_

Spring had finally come to Boston, and Felicity was going to enjoy it. She was done with class for the day and there was a spot on the lawn with her name on it. Well, not literally with her name on it. The groundskeepers were kind of picky about that. But she’d been cooped up all winter and she wanted out. Now. Goth aesthetic be damned, she wanted some sun today. 

She pulled a book out her backpack and sat down cross-legged in the grass, finding a comfortable position. She relaxed, letting herself be transported to Middle-earth. Bilbo Baggins had just disappeared from the party, when Felicity was hit with a crushing burst of panic. The earth was spinning. More so than usual. Overwhelming dizziness struck her and she leaned back, resting her head on the cool grass. What the hell was happening to her? 

Then a new sensation overtook her. She couldn’t breathe. And while she thought that, Felicity realized she was breathing, in and out, slightly faster than normal, but still breathing. And yet the feeling that she was drowning wouldn’t leave her mind. She tried to focus on the reality around her – the grass, the trees, the feel of the sun on her skin, the people off in the distance traveling from one place to another, but still she felt cold, scared, confused and even as she took in deep lungfuls of air, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was no oxygen in them. 

Felicity wrapped her arms tighter around herself, as much to fight the chills as to soothe herself. “You’re going to be okay,” she said out loud, firmly. “You’re safe. You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.” And as she said the words, she felt the drowning sensation end abruptly and the panic receded a bit. 

She felt a little steadier, a little more herself, so she tried sitting up and was relieved when doing so felt normal. Only for her heart to start racing again as her vision went dark. 

“Guess who?” 

Felicity breathed a sigh of relief and swatted at the hands covering her eyes. “Get off, Cooper! Seriously, worst timing in the world.” 

Cooper removed his hands and sat down next to Felicity. “Whoa. Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He rubbed at her arm. “Are you okay?” 

Felicity shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a panic attack. I just started freaking out.” She shook her head once more. “It felt like I was drowning. It felt real.” She shoved her novel back into her bag and stood up. 

Cooper followed after her and slid an arm around her shoulder. “How about you come back to my dorm and we find a way to take your mind off things?” 

Felicity smiled. “And just how are you going to manage that?” 

Cooper grinned back. “I’m sure we can think of something,” he said, leaning down to kiss her. 

* 

One minute Oliver was on the yacht, kissing Sara, not a care in the world. The next the boat was upside down and he was watching Sara get washed away before being swept into the ocean himself. God, he couldn’t breathe. He struggled to move his arms and legs, get to the surface, but he couldn’t even tell which way was up. It was over. This was how he was going to die. Alone. Lost at sea. Terror seized his heart. _This is it._

But then a calm reassurance settled over his limbs. _“You’re going to be okay,_ ” said the voice in his head. _“You’re safe. You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”_

It probably should have scared him more than it did. Auditory hallucinations had to be caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, right? But the moment he heard it, he believed it. It gave him the strength to hold on, to push just a little further to break free to the surface. 

Oliver gasped for air, pulling in deep breaths as he fought to stay afloat. He screamed for Sara, but there was no sign of her anywhere. He heard his father’s voice calling his name and swam towards it. He struggled to pull himself onboard, and then turned back to the water 

* 

Like everyone else in America, Felicity saw the news coverage about the Queen’s Gambit going down and taking its famed playboy Oliver Queen down with it. And like most people who saw it, she thought briefly about how tragic it was that someone so young should die so suddenly. Like most people, though, she saw it and moved on with her life. 

Felicity didn’t make the connection between her panic attack the day before and an accident that happened to a stranger seven thousand miles away. But then again, who would have?


	3. Chapter 3

Opening the club had seemed like a good idea when he’d first arrived home. Compared to everything he had dealt with in the past five years, it was calm. It was normal. And if there was one thing Oliver Queen knew it was the club scene. Or at least he thought he did, until he realized every band he knew from 2007 had broken up. His little sister was now cooler than him. How sad was that? But she’d taken over the club after his spectacular failure as a nightclub owner. As long as his trust fund footed the bills, Oliver and Thea could pretend it was still his club instead of hers. Hence the weekly business meeting he was now late for.

And maybe, just maybe, he had been a little distracted as he sped towards the club. Which is why he didn’t realize he had run a red light straight in front of a semi until it was almost too late.

“Look out!” a familiar female voice screamed.

“Shit!” Oliver muttered as horns blared and he swerved to miss the truck. It took him a second to realize that the scream hadn’t come from some innocent bystander looking out for his wellbeing, but instead sounded like it had been shouted right by his ear. “What?” he asked himself in confusion.

“What?” the voice replied.

“Who is that?” he yelled. “Who said that?”

The voice in his head sounded panicked now. “Stop this! Stop it! Stop it!”

Oliver pulled the motorcycle to the side of the road and dismounted. He was hallucinating. Or something. He tried to focus in on everything he had ignored from the psychiatrists when he’d first come back. What did they say about PTSD or psychotic breaks? Were they supposed to come on this suddenly? Shouldn’t there have been some kind of build up to this?

“What is this? What’s going on?” he asked hands pressed to the side of his head.

The voice in his head continued her rant. “Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!”

Oliver pulled off his helmet, as though the voice were coming from inside it. “Shut up!” The voice quieted down, only now he thought he could hear sobbing and shaky breaths. “Can you hear me? Who are you?”

“I’m sorry!” the voice whispered.

What was this? Whose voice was this? Sara’s? Shado’s? Was this some kind of guilt thing? He thought he’d moved on from those burdens…for the most part. “I’m sorry? For what? What’d I do?” A thousand things, another voice in his head answered, but as that one sounded exactly like him he decided to ignore it and move on.

“Who are you?”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “I asked you that.” And if hearing voices wasn’t the ultimate sign of insanity, arguing with them had to be.

“No, no, no you’re in my head.” Okay, no. The voices telling him _he_ wasn’t real had to be the ultimate sign. But suddenly, voices weren’t the only problem. He was seeing something else. A street that wasn’t there. Different from the grimy area of the Glades he was standing in. Snow-covered and cleaner. He focused back on the street in front of him

“Where am I?” he asked as an even more insane possibility sprang to his mind.

“What?”

“Where am I?” he repeated a little more firmly.

“You’re in an alley. Downtown somewhere. There’s a motorcycle. Why am I looking at a motorcycle? What does that mean?”

“It means I have a motorcycle.” Oliver sat down by the front wheel. “It’s mine.”

“You have a motorcycle. Of course. My hallucination has a motorcycle.”

“Why, what do you have?” Oliver asked.

“Mini-Cooper.”

“Not bad. Safe. Safer than my bike.”

“My fiancé got it for the name. His name’s Cooper. He said this way it’s like he’s with me all the time.” The voice laughed. “Why am I telling you this? You’re in my head. You know this.”

“I don’t know as much as you think. Where are you? Outside? Is it snowing?”

“You can see that?”

“Yeah. If I focus. Like, looking into the distance instead of looking at something close up.”

“Same here. I can see what’s here. Or…or what’s in my head.”

“This isn’t your head. This is Starling City.”

“Oh my god. You’re real.” The voice laughed. “You’re a real live person.”

Oliver laughed. “Well, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all day.”

“I don’t understand this.”

“Welcome to my life.”

“This is crazy,” the voice replied. “You sound like you’re standing right here with me, but” – Oliver noticed the images in his mind change as she looked around herself – “obviously you aren’t.”

“Where are you? Since we’ve established that you aren’t in my head.”

“Boston. February 2013.”

“Well, I didn’t think you were time traveling.”

“I don’t think we can rule out any possibilities at this point,” she said. “Wait, can you read my mind?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver said. “Think something.”

“Okay. Like what?”

“That would be cheating.”

“Oh, right. Okay, I’ve got one. Go.”

Oliver concentrated on the woman’s voice and although the visions he was getting from her grew stronger, he didn’t hear or see anything besides the same street and stores he’d been looking at. “Nothing.”

“I’m thinking of blue shoes.”

“Okay. That’s a weird one. Why don’t we try – “ he cut himself off as he saw someone approaching. Or more accurately, approaching her.

“Felicity?” the woman said in a concerned voice. “You left your order.” She held out a bag and cup of coffee and Oliver watched as hands with a neat light blue manicure accepted them.

And suddenly the vision was gone. Like a call had been dropped.

“Hello?” Oliver called into nothingness, glancing around, suddenly worried that a paparazzo would see him standing on the side of the road talking to himself like a maniac.

“Thanks, Iris,” Felicity said, taking the order as she pushed herself off the ground.

“Are you okay?” Iris asked, running her eyes over Felicity, like she could find the answers to what had made her run out of the coffee shop like a lunatic on her face.

_Nope. Sorry, Iris. All in my head._

_Well, in my head and in a city on the other side of the country._

“Yeah. Of course. I just needed to make a call,” Felicity said, hoping the other woman hadn’t noticed her shouting as she ran out the door of Jitters.

Iris noted the absence of a cell phone in Felicity’s hand, but let it go. “So, you’re definitely okay.”

“Yeah. Fine. Peachy.” Peachy?

“All right,” Iris said. “I gotta get back inside. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Just like every day,” Felicity assured her. She waited until Iris had gone back inside before walking down the street to a more secluded spot and concentrating on her mysterious voice. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

“I can. Did we get disconnected?”

Felicity winced. “More like I hung up on you. Which is rude I know. I had this weird feeling in the back of my head, like you were trying to talk to me, but I just pushed it away. Sorry, my friend followed me out and I just couldn’t talk.”

“Okay, I guess it’s good to know that mental call blocking is a thing,” Oliver said.

Felicity glanced around her, acutely aware that she was not alone.“Listen, I’m in public and I’ve got to get back to work soon.”

“All right, but we need to talk about all this.”

“Right. Right. Tonight? Eleven for me, eight for you?”

“Okay, that works. And if for some reason it doesn’t…then, it was nice meeting you, Felicity.”

“Nice meeting you too….”

“Oliver.”

“Nice to meet you, Oliver.”


	4. Chapter 4

Oliver paced his bedroom floor nervously. This was insane. He had to be having a nervous breakdown or something.

And what, he’d actually scheduled a date with his PTSD? Was that more or less far-fetched than having a psychic link with a woman he’d never met? How was he even supposed to reach her? It had been an accident before.

*

Cooper slid his hands along Felicity’s shoulders as she typed away at her computer. “You coming to bed, babe?”

Felicity gently pushed his hand away. “I have some work to do. Dr. Wells wanted me to double check a security issue we’re having with the system.”

Cooper kissed her cheek. “You work too hard. What would that place do without you?”

“Crash and burn.” Felicity gave him a quick kiss before pushing Cooper away. “Now go to bed. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can follow you.”

Cooper left, and Felicity rose from her chair to shut the door behind him before closing her eyes and focusing on Oliver. Within seconds, images flashed in her mind and she knew she had found him.

“Whoa,” Oliver said as the vision flashed before his eyes.

“Hi,” Felicity said. “Wow that actually worked. Gotta say, I did not expect that.”

“Yeah, me either.”

“So I’ve been thinking this through, trying to figure out how this could actually be happening,” Felicity said, pacing around her office.

Oliver sat down, tried to relax. He picked up a cup of coffee that had long since gone cold just to have something to do with his hands. “Uh-huh. And what did you come up with?” he asked, taking a sip of the coffee.

“You weren’t part of some top-secret covert ops experiment, were you?”

Oliver choked on his coffee. “No. Not that I know of. Wait, do you know Amanda Waller?”

“Who?”

“No one. Never mind,” he said quickly.

“Well, STAR Labs has had some shady government contracts in the past, but I’m pretty sure they couldn’t have slipped this one by me without my knowing.”

“STAR Labs?”

“It’s where I work.”

“You’re a scientist.”

“Well, computer scientist. I’m a systems analyst.”

“Impressive. I can barely Google.” And five years on an island hadn’t exactly made him more tech proficient.

“So what do you do, Oliver?”

Oliver smiled. “I own a club.”

“A club?”

“A night club. My sister does most of the work.”

“So if I’m ever in Starling City, do I get free drinks?”

Oliver laughed. “Yeah. On the house.”

Felicity looked around Oliver’s bedroom. “So this is yours? House, I mean?”

Oliver winced. “My family’s, yeah.”

“You live at home? How old are you?” God, that sounded so much judgier than she had meant it to.

“Twenty-seven,” Oliver said. “It’s not as weird as it seems.”

“No, I know. I didn’t mean – “ Felicity sighed. “My mouth and my brain aren’t always on the same page. Unfortunately, you get stuck with the actual words I say out loud.”

Oliver smiled. “It’s okay. It’s nice. Having someone to listen. And to listen to.” The smile drifted from his face. “I’ve had some really lonely times in my life.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

“You have?”

“No, I just.” Felicity sighed, took a deep breath and started again. “I mean, I started thinking about it. And today wasn’t the first time I’ve heard from you. It was just…the strongest. Like instead of hearing a song playing on a radio in the distance, it was turned up to full volume right next to me.”

Oliver’s heart beat faster, things he’d done, things Felicity could have known about that he didn’t want her to playing in his mind and he was glad she couldn’t hear his thoughts.  “What exactly have you heard? Or seen?”

Felicity scrubbed her hand over her face. “Was there…was there a boat? A ship? Like, five, six years ago? It…it sank? Was that real?”

Oliver’s breath caught in his throat. The memory of _The Gambit_ going down swirled in his mind, along with the voice that had told him he would be all right. “Yes,” he managed. “That was real.”

“Oh, my god. I thought I was going crazy that day. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and then…wait, if that was real then everything else…that crazy island…” Felicity trailed off.

Oliver rose to his feet, heading to the mirror and locking eyes with his reflection.

Felicity’s jaw dropped. “You’re Oliver Queen. I – I have psychic link with Oliver Queen. That’s – that’s a plot twist I was not expecting.” Felicity headed out of her office.

“Where are you going?” Oliver asked, watching the scenery change.

“There’s no mirror in here,” Felicity explained, stepping into the bathroom. “You showed me yours, I show you mine. Face, that is! My brain thinks of the worst way to say things.” Felicity lifted her eyes towards the mirror. “Okay, here I am, Felicity Smoak. Read ‘em and weep.”

Oliver looked into Felicity’s bright blue eyes. “You’re beautiful,” he said before he could stop himself.

Felicity smiled, but then the moment was too serious, too real. The corners of her lips slipped. “Yeah, well, it’s not the body of an underwear model, but it’s never let me down.”

Oliver groaned. “You know about the underwear model.”

Felicity laughed. “Oh, yeah. You, sir, are responsible for some very confusing dreams in my teenage years. And some even more confusing ones the last few years. The island. It was real.”

“I guess I probably owe you a thank you.”

“A thank you? For what?”

“For saving my life,” Oliver said. “The night _The Gambit_ sank I heard a voice telling me everything was going to be all right. It kept me going. It made me fight to get to the surface. You saved me, Felicity. I – I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”


	5. Chapter 5

Felicity felt a blush creeping up her skin. She wondered if Oliver was as acutely aware of it as she was. “It’s nothing. I mean, not your life, obviously, which is valuable and wonderful and I’m glad I saved it. I just – I didn’t know I was. I thought I was talking myself down from a panic attack.” Suddenly another thought struck her. “Hey, wait a minute. Did you have an accident, another accident, when you were a teenager? It would’ve been like ten years ago.”

“Accident? You mean the ski lift? I cracked my head on a pine tree,” Oliver said, rubbing absentmindedly at the spot, sending a tingle through Felicity’s scalp.

“I was there. I mean, I felt it. It knocked me out.”

“You were in class, right? I saw it. I thought it was just the head injury, but –“

“It was real,” Felicity finished. “This has been going on for ten years and we never realized it until now? How did we manage that?”

“It’s not like you’re supposed to ask the voices in your head for confirmation,” Oliver said. “You wonder if you’re crazy and then you just – “

“Push it away. I wonder if we’re the only ones. Or are there other people who’ve experienced this and just kept it hidden?” Felicity wondered. Suddenly, her inner scientist was taking over, wanting to test the link, see what else they could do.

“Felicity,” Oliver said slowly. It was like he’d been saying her name in exasperation for years. “Whatever you’re planning the answer is no.”

“What makes you think I’m planning something?”

“Your heart started racing and you’ve got a big grin on your face. You’re still in front of the mirror,” he reminded her.

Felicity turned her back on the mirror. “I was just thinking we could test this out. Like an experiment.”

“Like I said before, the answer is no.”

“Why? Don’t you wanna figure out why this happened?”

“There’ve been a lot of things in my life that I haven’t been able to explain. And this is one of the few good ones,” Oliver said. “So no, I don’t feel like we have to get it all figured out.”

“All right, we’ll skip the experiments,” Felicity said. _For now_ , she added mentally, grateful once again that Oliver couldn’t hear her thoughts.

Silence flooded their connection. “It’s getting kind of late here,” Oliver said. “And this has been a really weird, confusing day, so…”

“Right, sleep. Sleep is important,” Felicity said.

“I’ll, um, _call you_ , in the morning?”

“It’s a date. I mean, it’s an appointment. I’ll talk to you then.”

“Bye, Felicity.”

“Bye, Oliver.”

*

Felicity slept in on Saturday morning, the memories of her conversation with Oliver keeping her up late on Friday night. _I’m not crazy._ The thought alone was enough to fill her with warmth, after years of moments where she would wonder, _Am I crazy? Isn’t there some correlation between genius and insanity? Does it run on Dad’s side of the family? Is that why he left?_

But even knowing she wasn’t crazy there were so many other questions, some of them for Oliver, some of them about the possibilities of their connection. _Are we the only ones? Are there others out there like us? Can we connect with other people this way?_

Until finally the thoughts drove her out of bed and straight to her tablet, where she had fallen asleep in the living room chair somewhere around three a.m. after reading every single somewhat scientific article she could find on psychic activity. She awoke sometime after nine with a terrible crick in her neck and a desperate desire for caffeine. She was in the middle of making coffee when Oliver’s voice surprised her.

“Hey, Felicity.”

She jumped, throwing coffee grounds all over the kitchen. “God, we need to figure out a way to knock,” she said, kneeling down to pick up the grounds.

She could feel Oliver’s cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Sorry, I just…said I would call in the morning. And it’s morning. Well, afternoon here, technically. I tried earlier, but you were asleep.”

“And I thought I was the babbler.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t. You just surprised me.” She dropped the spilled coffee grounds in the trashcan. “Guess I’m not used to the whole…telepathy…thing.”

“We’ve established that we can’t read each other’s minds.”

“Do you have a better name for it? ‘Cause I’m open to suggestions.”

Felicity heard and felt the sigh that came from Oliver. “No. I guess not.”

“Listen,” Felicity said uncertainly. “I was wondering if maybe we should…tell someone.”

“Tell someone?”

“Like a doctor or psychiatrist or someone? This kind of thing is kind of unprecedented. We don’t know really know what we’re getting ourselves into, Oliver.”

Oliver went quiet. Felicity remembered some of the snippets she had gotten of Oliver’s life over the last few years. “Does this have anything to do with the scary lady in the suit?”

“That would be Amanda Waller,” Oliver replied. “You remember her?”

Felicity shook her head. “Not clearly. Just – flashes of her and feelings mostly. From wherever you were that was not a deserted island, and don’t think we aren’t going to talk about that later. She scared you, and I say that knowing you don’t scare that easily. You were trapped. You couldn’t breathe. You were worried. About someone else. She threatened someone you care about.”

When Oliver found his voice, it was deep and hoarse. “Thea. My little sister.”

“Right,” Felicity said, envisioning the party girl who’d graced more than a few tabloid covers. Only now the image was accompanied by Oliver’s feelings for the girl as she said her name. Protectiveness. Worry. And an overwhelming rush of love. “She, Waller, she was dangerous. Manipulative. Not someone you would want to see learn about this.”

“If Amanda knew that there was a possibility of using psychic abilities for a tactical advantage over the enemy, she would want access to it,” Oliver said. “Neither of us would be safe. And neither would the people we care about.”

 _Mom. Cooper,_ Felicity thought, immediately followed by a vague sense of sadness that her list of people she cared about was incredibly short. _Well, it’s getting a little longer,_ she thought. “Okay, it stays a secret,” Felicity said.

“It doesn’t have to be a complete secret,” Oliver said. “If you think you can trust him, you could tell your fiancé. You don’t have to keep this all to yourself.”

The thought of Cooper not believing her, or worse yet, laughing in her face, scared Felicity. “I think I’m gonna wait,” she said. “At least until we understand it better.”

“If that’s what you want to do,” Oliver said.

“Besides, it’s not like I have to keep it all to myself,” Felicity said, a smile coming to her lips. “I have you.”


	6. Chapter 6

Oliver hadn’t appreciated just how fascinating his life in Starling City could be to another person, until he took Felicity to Verdant on a Saturday night.

Felicity sat in bed, munching on popcorn and chugging down a Red Bull to keep herself awake as the clock ticked past one a.m. her time. But still her curiosity won out. She wanted to know more about Oliver’s life, and okay, admittedly she was more than a little interested in finding out how the idle rich spent their time.

“Oh my god, do you even realize how many girls are staring at you right now?” Felicity asked. “They’re ready to pounce. Like lions on an incredibly wealthy gazelle.”

“I’m not a gazelle,” Oliver muttered into his drink.

“Rhino? Crocodile? Whatever you are they are ready to sink their teeth in.” She cackled with delight as two scantily clad women approached the bar where Oliver sat.

“You can’t be sitting here all by yourself,” the brunette said, her words slurring slightly.

Oliver forced a smile. “Oh, I’m not entirely alone,” Oliver said. He nodded towards the end of the bar, where John Diggle sipped on his club soda. “Trusty bodyguard. My sister’s here somewhere. And look, Tommy Merlyn.” Oliver reached out clapping a hand on his approaching friend’s shoulder. “Tommy, these beautiful ladies were just looking for you,” he said, pushing his friend gently towards the pair as he walked away from the bar.

“Actually, we were…” the redhead began, but Oliver didn’t head what she said. He was already gone, weaving his way through the crowd.

“Boo!” Felicity yelled, throwing popcorn in front of her like a disappointed moviegoer. “Come on, I wanted to see what kind of game the infamous Oliver Queen had.”

“Trust me, you did not want to see that going anywhere,” Oliver whispered.

“Okay, but forget about me, what about you? You spent five years ‘on an island’” – she holds her hands out in front of her so that Oliver can actually see her air quotes – “don’t you think it’s time to get back into the dating scene?”

Oliver sighed. “Given what I’ve been through…dating would be… _complicated_.”

“But what about your man needs?” Felicity teased. She could feel the blood rush to Oliver’s cheeks as he coughed, trying to cover the laugh that escaped him at her comment.

“How much Red Bull have you had?” Oliver asked when he finished.

“Not nearly enough,” Thea said, setting the tray of drinks down at the end of the bar.

“Oooh, the sister,” Felicity said, munching on popcorn. “I’ve been dying to get to know her, but _someone_ keeps shutting me out when his family’s around.”

“I can do it again,” Oliver mumbled.

“What?” Thea said.

“I can give you a hand,” he said. “It’s pretty busy tonight.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’d hate to make you have to work at _your own_ night club,” Thea teased.

Felicity smiled. “I like her.”

Oliver rolled his eyes at both of them. He was in trouble if these two ever met. But then he shook the thought from his head. When would they meet? Officially, he didn’t even know Felicity. For what reason would he possibly bring them together?

Thea leaned against the bar, surveyed the crowd. “It is pretty busy out there. Lots of beautiful women who would love to get to know a charming, eligible billionaire.”

“And on that note, I’m heading home.” Oliver turned to leave, and Thea grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” Thea said. “I just think it would be good for you if you put yourself back out there. It’s been a long time since you seriously dated someone.”

 _And look how well that turned out_ , Oliver thought. “Thea, I’m just not ready.”

Thea held up her hands. “Okay, whatever you say. I’m just looking out for you.”

Oliver leaned forward, planting a kiss on his sister’s forehead. “That’s my job. Goodnight, Speedy.”

Oliver headed towards the door. Tommy had taken a seat at a booth with the two girls who’d spoken to Oliver earlier, and both girls were laughing at whatever Tommy had said.

He reached the end of the bar and nodded to Diggle. It wasn’t until the two men had gotten to the car and pulled away from the club that Felicity spoke. “Look, I know I teased you about this, but if you didn’t want to go to the club you didn’t have to.”

Oliver glanced at Diggle in the front seat and pulled out his cell phone, pretending to dial a number. “Hey,” he said into the phone.

“Oooh, good cover. Excellent way to not look like a crazy person talking to yourself. I’m gonna have to remember that one.”

“So, how did your evening go?” Oliver said into the phone.

“Listen, I still agree with Thea. Even though I know you’re lying to her about, well, everything. I know your last few relationships ended badly. Like really badly.”

“That would be an understatement,” Oliver said.

“Right, sorry,” Felicity said. “I’m not trying to bring up bad memories. I know that Laurel and Sara and Shado all ended spectacularly awful. And yes, I was there for Shado, and you are more than welcome to bring up all my relationship horror stories that you’ve witnessed to make up for this horrible rant. I just, I think you’ve got a lot more to offer than you’re willing to admit. And okay, the timing might be awful what with you recently living through the world’s worst _Gilligan’s Island_ remake and currently having a crazy woman in your ear.” Oliver couldn’t help but smile at her babbling. “On the other hand, who better to give you advice? I know exactly what women want to hear. And I promise, I’m much better at telling other people what to say than saying it myself. This babbling should not be taken as an example of the advice I will give.” She took a deep breath, waiting for his response.

“Maybe you’re right,” Oliver said finally.

“I love when people tell me that,” Felicity said, smiling. She heard footsteps in the hallway and reached for the remote turning on the TV just as Cooper opened the door.

“Who are you talking to, babe?” he asked.

“Um, the TV.” She glanced back up at the screen to see Mark Ruffalo. “Yes, go! Save Reese Witherspoon, you fool!”

“And people think I’m a bad liar,” Oliver said.

Felicity bit her tongue to keep from talking back to him. _Yep, next time definitely using the phone ruse._

Cooper glanced warily between Felicity and the TV. “Okay, I’ll let you…get back to your movie.” He pulled the door closed as he backed into the hallway.

Felicity let out a groan as Oliver chuckled. “Why do I keep looking like the crazy person here? Why is it never you?”

“Too much practice lying to everyone,” Oliver said. “Well, almost everyone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actual plot coming soon. I promise. I made a list.


	7. Chapter 7

Their conversations became routine. They rarely made specific plans to talk anymore, but at least once a day, even if it was just for a few minutes, one of them would pop over to the other’s mind to see if it was a good time to chat. Sometimes it ended badly. Felicity learned very quickly to put up her mental blocks _before_ she stepped into the shower. But usually they found each other’s presence comforting rather than intrusive. They grew better at picking up on each other’s subtle clues, the signs that their companion was reaching out. That they needed the other, whether they realized it or not.

Felicity was curled up on the couch watching a movie with Cooper when she felt it. An uneasiness from Oliver. Stress, and not in his typical life-endangering sort of way. She could feel her own shoulders tense. She let her guard drop and watched through Oliver’s eyes as cops swarmed his club.

“Oh, my God!” Felicity said, making both Oliver and Cooper jump.

“What’s wrong?” Cooper asked, shifting back to get a better look at his fiancée.

“Nothing,” Felicity said, rising to her feet. She pulled her glasses off. “I just realized how dirty these glasses are. I can’t even tell if that’s Chris or Liam Hemsworth.”

“It’s _The Avengers._ Pretty sure it’s Chris.”

“Well, better safe than sorry. I’m just gonna…” Felicity took off for the bathroom. She sighed as she closed the door and slid down to have a seat on the cold tile floor.

“We are going to have to work on your excuses,” Oliver muttered as he watched several of his club patrons get taken away in handcuffs. He pulled his cell phone out of his phone for cover.

“Shut up,” Felicity said. “Is everything all right? You seemed worried and then I saw the cops, and…”

“Everything’s fine,” Oliver said. “We just had a little problem with some of the clientele.”

“What kind of problem?”

“The ‘somebody sold designer drugs in my club and got spotted by the undercover vice cop who set up a sting’ kind of problem,” Oliver replied. “Verdant’s not in any kind of legal trouble although this is probably not going to be good for business.”

“All those poor little rich kids who’ll have to find a new place to meet up with their dealers and spend daddy’s money.” Felicity waited for Oliver to respond, but suddenly he was back in his own world, his eyes locked on a police officer with a long dark ponytail on the other side of the club.

“Hey, I’m gonna have to call you back,” Oliver said, putting away the phone, but not shutting out his conversation with Felicity. She took that as her invitation to stay for what happened next.

“And here I thought, the first time McKenna Hall came to my club it would be because I invited her, not because of official police business.”

McKenna smiled back. “It’s a nice place, Oliver,” she said. “I’ll have to come back again some time when I’m not on duty.” The smile dropped from her face. “Unless I’m officially banned from the club after this experience.”

Oliver smiled disarmingly. “No, of course you’re not banned from the club. The only ones banned from my club are the ones who brought narcotics into it.”

“I don’t think they’ll be a problem any time soon,” McKenna said. She gestured vaguely towards the doors, where her fellow officers were loading the six people they had arrest into the backs of squad cars. “I should probably go. Get back to doing my actual job.”

“Right,” Oliver said. He grabbed his cell phone. “And I should do what I can to keep this PR nightmare from being all over the local news tomorrow. No need to besmirch the family name over this.”

“Oh, come on, the Queen family name has taken worse hits than this and moved on,” McKenna said. “I’ll see you around, Ollie.” She walked away, throwing Oliver a final glance over her shoulder.

“You’re gonna talk to me, right? You don’t actually have to make a phone call right now?” Felicity asked.

Oliver smiled, putting the phone to his ear. “I probably do need to pull some strings and make this disappear sooner rather than later, but yes, I was calling you.”

“Good,” Felicity said with a smile. “So, you have a thing for her.”

“What?” Oliver said. Felicity wished she could see the look on his face. “She’s just an old friend. I was being friendly.”

“I’ve seen you talk to old friends before. You definitely don’t sound like that when you talk to Tommy,” Felicity said.

“You want me to hit on the cop who just raided my club?” Oliver asked.

“No, I want you to ask out your old friend from high school. Who was definitely giving you some ‘more than friends’ looks during that conversation.” Felicity thought for a second. “She seemed really familiar. Did you two date in high school?”

“I’m not sure you could call what we did in high school ‘dating.’”

“Oh my God! She’s one of your confusing dream girls!”

“That is…actually a pretty accurate description.”

“You cannot let her get away. Ask her out!”

“I’m not gonna ask her out.”

“C’mon, Oliver, how many badass, beautiful woman do you think there are in the world?”

“More than you’d think,” Oliver muttered.

“Are you scared?”

“What? No!” Oliver scoffed

“You are. You’re scared! Oliver, I have seen you go up against sharks before. Sharks! You can handle shark attacks and bombs and you’re scared to ask out one tiny woman?”

“Fine. I’ll ask her out on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You don’t get to bug me about asking out anyone else.”

Felicity sighed. “Fine. Deal. Now go before she drives off.”

Oliver jogged out the door to McKenna.

“Did you need something, Mr. Queen?” she said, fighting to keep her voice professional.

“Dinner.”

McKenna raised her eyebrows.

“Dinner with you tomorrow night. If you’d like.”

“I’m working tomorrow night. But I’m free the next night.”

“What?” Felicity said. “No! I’ve got plans Sunday night!”

“It’s not your date,” Oliver mumbled.

“What?”

“I said ‘It’s a date.’ I’ll pick you up at seven?”

McKenna smiled. “Yeah, that sounds great. I’ll text you my address.”

“Perfect,” Oliver said. “I’ll see you then.”

He turned back and headed into the club, with Felicity’s voice in his head. “Where are you gonna take her? Are you gonna do dinner and movie? I mean, you’re a billionaire, you’ve got to have something bigger planned than that, right? Not that being a big spender is always the best way to go.”

“Felicity! I have dated before. I’ve got this.”

“Got what?” Thea said as Oliver drew closer.

“A date with McKenna Hall,” Oliver answered.

Thea squealed with glee. “Oh, this is amazing! You have to let me pick out the restaurant. You cannot screw this up. She could be so good for you. And Verdant. It might be nice to have someone on the police force who doesn’t hate our family.”

“My work here is done. Thea’s got this,” Felicity said. She could feel Oliver’s lips pull into a smirk as he dealt with his baby sister. She rose off the floor and headed back into the living room. She flopped back down on the couch beside Cooper with a grin on her face.

“You get them taken care of?” Cooper asked.

“Yeah,” Felicity said. “Wait, what?”

“Your glasses? All better?”

“Oh, right. Everything’s clear now.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver has dinner with McKenna. Felicity has dinner with Cooper. Neither outing goes according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me preface this by saying I know very little about computers, which is very bad for writing for computer geniuses, so if I screw up, move on.

Oliver adjusted his tie for the tenth time, trying to decide if it was too much for a first date. Well, a first date in ten years, although you probably couldn’t technically call his and McKenna’s high school hookups “dating.” Which really just made him want to make a good impression, prove he wasn’t the same guy he’d been before the island. So he’d gone the whole nine yards – suit, reservations at that fancy Italian place, Digg driving so he could focus all his attention on McKenna.

Oliver knocked on McKenna’s door.

She answered the door with a smile on her face. “Oliver Queen, picking me up on time?”

Oliver chuckled. “I’ve turned over a new leaf.”

“I’ll say.” McKenna looked down at her dress, then back up at Oliver’s suit. “I feel a little underdressed.”

“No, you look beautiful,” Oliver assured her with an easy smile.

*

The date was going fine until they ran out of things to talk about halfway through appetizers. Oliver had thought it would be easier, dating someone he already knew, but it was harder. McKenna had expectations about the person Oliver was that he no longer filled, and it wasn’t like he could tell her the truth about what had changed him into this new person on a first date.

“So, being a detective must be interesting,” Oliver said.

McKenna nodded. “It is. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to discuss most of it outside of work.”

“Right, of course.”

“No, you cannot be down to discussing _work_ ,” came a voice in his ear, making him jump. “Come on, your womanizing ways were legendary. You can’t tell me TMZ lied to me for all those years. Not to mention the stuff I’ve seen up close.”

“Would you excuse me for a moment? I’m going to head to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” Oliver rose from his seat and headed for the restroom. Diggle followed after him as he left the dining room, stopping when Oliver held up his hand near the entrance to the bathroom.

Oliver closed the door to the bathroom stall and focused his attention back on Felicity. “What are you doing?”

“I wanted to see how your date was going.”

“You wanted to spy on my date, you mean.”

Felicity sighed. “Fine. I wanted to spy on your date. Which I can’t do if you’re hiding out in the bathroom, now get back in there.”

Oliver studied the scenery around her. “Wait, where are you?”

“Hiding out in the bathroom,” Felicity admitted.

“You’re supposed to have plans tonight.”

“They’re boring,” she whined. “Listening to my fiancé attempt to sweettalk my boss into purchasing the rights to some new software he’s created. I’m supposed to smile and be charming. The prospect of a rom-com starring a billionaire playboy former castaway and his detective high school flame sounded much more interesting.”

“This is not a rom-com.”

“You’re right. It’s completely boring here. Fix it.”

“I can’t,” Oliver hissed. “Because I’m trying to get the voice inside my head to shut up and let me have my awkward date in peace!”

Felicity sighed. “Fine. But you’ve got to step this up. Find some common ground. You don’t want to talk about your past. I get that. But you’ve got to give the girl something about yourself that’s real even if it’s not deep. Otherwise, she’s never going to see the person you’ve become. And no one should have the shadow of who they were in high school lingering over them, believe me.”

Oliver smiled. “That’s the least of the shadows hanging over me.”

“Just go get the girl, okay?”

“Probably easier without my not-so-imaginary friend yammering in my ear.”

Oliver could feel Felicity rolling her eyes. “Please,” she said. “You’re nothing without me. Now go out there and make this happen.”

Diggle eyed him strangely as he came back out, glancing briefly into the empty restroom. Oliver had a sneaking suspicion the door wasn’t as soundproof as he would’ve liked. “That wasn’t what it sounded like,” Oliver said.

“I learned a long time ago not to question my clients about what goes on in the men’s room, Mr. Queen,” Diggle without making eye contact.

Oliver shook his head as Felicity giggled.

“Okay, I’m done. Go back to your date. Make me proud,” she said, the link between them fading to an ignorable hum.

Felicity gave her makeup a cursory glance in the mirror and headed back to her dinner with Cooper and Dr. Wells.

She slid into her seat next to Cooper. “Did you boys play nice while I was gone?”

“Ah, Miss Smoak,” Dr. Wells said. “Cooper seems to think STAR Labs isn’t putting enough into its computer sciences division.”

“I’ve been telling you the same thing for years,” she said, taking a sip of her wine.

“He was just telling me about the new operating system he’s developed.”

“I’m telling you, with the new OS I’ve developed, you could have much faster computers and finally corner the market over Microsoft,” Cooper said.

Dr. Wells turned to Felicity. “What do you think of this new system?”

“I, um, it’s a good system,” Felicity stammered.

Dr. Wells smiled. “You don’t sound so certain about it overtaking the market.”

“Um, well there’s a lot of factors that go into that: marketing, brand loyalty, why you’re using the computer. I mean, the baby boomers who just want to check out cute cat videos probably don’t care too much about the operating efficiency,” Felicity said.

“Felicity!” Cooper snapped. “I’m sure what Dr. Wells is looking for is the Smoak seal of approval, since he did hire you for your technological genius.”

Felicity turned back to Cooper. “I didn’t realize I was here to prove your system’s worth for you. I thought you would be handling that.”

Cooper forced a laugh. He turned towards Dr. Wells. “She’s certainly not afraid to speak her mind.”

Dr. Wells smiled. “That’s why I’ve always trusted her opinion.”

Felicity smiled back. “I’ll drink to that,” she said. She reached for her wine glass, only to knock over the candle that sat on the table as she did, along with Dr. Wells’s glass of scotch.

Oliver jumped at the sight of flames engulfing the tablecloth. “Fire! Fire!” he shouted while McKenna stared at him in confusion.

“I can see that, Oliver!” Felicity hissed, earning her strange looks from Dr. Wells and Cooper.

“Put it out!” Oliver shouted.

“I’m trying!” Felicity exclaimed, flipping her nearly empty plate of chicken piccata over the fire, smothering the flames. “So, uh, see you at work tomorrow.”

Oliver felt the rush of embarrassment as Felicity shut him out, but at least he knew she was okay. He sat back down, avoiding the gaze of the people around the restaurant who were staring at him.

“Oliver…” McKenna began.

He shook his head. “That wasn’t what it looked like. I’m not crazy.”

“I didn’t say that,” she said gently. “But I do think we should probably leave. You’re starting to attract some unwanted attention.”

Oliver looked around at the people surreptitiously taking videos on their phones. He sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

*

“You called out another guy’s name,” Cooper said as they walked into their apartment.

“At the dinner table,” Felicity said, throwing her jacket onto the couch. “It’s not like I called his name in bed.”

“Right, at the table. The table you set on fire rather than recommend my work to Wells,” Cooper said.

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because clearly I meant to set the table on fire. You really think I could’ve planned that in advance? And speaking of planning in advance, you could’ve told me you weren’t ready to sell your programming yourself, and that you needed me to do all the work for you.”

“You could’ve backed me up,” Cooper said. “‘Yeah, Dr. Wells, it’s great. Better than anything on the market.’ How hard would that have been?”

“I’ll be in my office,” Felicity said, storming out.

“Who’s Oliver?” Cooper called to her retreating back.

“My imaginary friend,” Felicity shot back without turning around. She slammed the office door and opened up the link to Oliver. “Sorry if I ruined your date,” she said.

Oliver chuckled as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t going to end well for me and McKenna either way. Are you okay? I mean, my dinner at least didn’t go up in literal flames.”

“I’m fine,” Felicity assured him.

“But you’re angry.”

“Oh, I’m pretty pissed off at my fiancé right now.” Felicity shook her head. “But I don’t want to talk about that right now. I really am sorry about McKenna. I thought you two made a cute couple.”

“Well, I’m sure Thea will be happy to tell me all the ways I screwed that up tomorrow.”

“Always nice to have someone you can depend on,” Felicity said.

“There is one thing I want to talk about,” Oliver said.

“And what’s that?”

“We have got to work on your excuses,” he said.

“ _My_ excuses?” Felicity said.

“At least I pretend to be on the phone, you just hide out in the bathroom or yell random things at the TV.”

“Well, the joke’s on you because that is how I normally watch TV, it’s completely in character for me. It’s kind of like how guys yell at sporting events.”

“Sporting events are at least real,” Oliver countered.

“Yes, but no matter how loudly you yell at them, they’re still not going to catch the ball because you said to.”

“I got a woman three thousand miles away to put out a fire because I said to,” Oliver said. “Don’t rule out me having a psychic link to the Seahawks just yet.”

Felicity laughed. “Let me know if that works out for you.” She sighed. “I should go. Try to talk things over with Cooper.”

The smile fell from Oliver’s face. “That’s probably a good idea. What’s that saying? ‘Never go to bed angry.’”

“Good advice. Bye, Oliver.”

“Bye, Felicity.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: much like the actual writers for this show, I will occasionally make the characters stupider than they should be to move the plot along.
> 
> Also, sorry for the long wait between chapters. I'm trying not to be the writer who completely abandons a WIP fic.

Oliver’s first thought when he saw Malcolm Merlyn’s town car when he arrived back from the club at almost three o’clock in the morning was that something horrible must have happened. Instinctively, he reached for his phone, but there were no messages, no missed calls. He switched off the motorcycle and walked towards the house, only to shrink back into the shadows as he heard the front door slam.

“…completely inappropriate, Malcolm,” Moira said as she followed Malcolm back to his car. “What if Thea or Walter had heard you?”

“Then I imagine I would have to take countermeasures to ensure they didn’t interfere with The Undertaking,” Malcolm said seriously. “Did they?”

Moira froze for only a second, panic flickering across her face before her calm mask fell back into place. “No, they’re both asleep. And Oliver’s still at the club.”

Malcolm smiled. “Then you have nothing to worry about.” He pulled something from his coat pocket and passed it to Moira.

“What is this?”

“I thought you would want to know how the work on the device is progressing.”

“What could possibly make you think that?”

“This is a partnership, Moira,” Malcolm said. “You deserve to be kept informed about the project.” He flashed a grin at her as he got back into his car. “Be sure to let me know if you have any ideas for improvements.”

Moira watched Malcolm’s taillights disappear in the distance. When he was gone, she flung the object into the fountain with a strength Oliver wouldn’t have thought his mother possessed. “I’m not the only one who’s going to get what they deserve,” she murmured, heading back into the manor.

Once his mother was in the house and the downstairs lights had gone off.  He moved furtively to the fountain and fished out the object. A flash drive. “What the hell is The Undertaking?” he muttered.

*

“Hey, can we talk?” Oliver voice popped into Felicity’s head unexpectedly while she typed away at her computer.

He watched her vision bob up and down slowly as she nodded, standing up and closing the door to her office before slipping a Bluetooth earpiece on. “What do you need?”

“You’re good with computer stuff, right?” Oliver asked.

“You do realize that asking me if I’m good with computers is the equivalent of me asking if you’re good with a bow.” She could feel the bemused smirk pulling at the corners of Oliver’s lips. “I’ve seen things, Oliver,” she reminded him. “And, yes, I’m good with computers. Why? What do you need? Pictures of your sordid past show up on the internet again?”

“Not that I know of,” Oliver said.

“Are you okay?” Felicity asked. “You feel even more tense than usual, and let’s face it, your usual level of tense makes me want to set up a massage appointment. Does this have anything to do with why you’ve been on radio silence the past few days?”

“I found something. A USB drive with encrypted files. I can’t open it.”

“What makes you think you need to?”

“My mother’s been keeping something from me, and I need to know what it is.”

“It’s your mother, Oliver. What could you possibly think it is?”

“I don’t know. But whatever it is, she’s been acting weird ever since I got home, and I think it’s something that’s been going on since before I landed on the island, because my dad…” Oliver trailed off, but Felicity felt the memory of what she’s once thought a dream tug at her mind.

“He told you to right his wrongs,” she finished. She could feel Oliver’s brow furrow. “You see it, I see it, remember?”

“I haven’t been. Righting wrongs. I didn’t know how, but now…she’s plotting something. With a lot of powerful people, and whatever it is, it’s got her scared. I’ve never seen her like this.”

“Okay, I can help you. Later tonight. Get a new laptop. Pay cash. Don’t hook it up to any networks. If the information on the drive is as dangerous as you think it is, you don’t need anything connecting you to it.”

“How are you going to hack into it if I don’t connect to the internet?”

“I’m not. You will.”

“Me?”

“I’ll talk you through it. It’ll be easy. I’ll call you after work today.”

*

Ten minutes into his conversation with Felicity and Oliver was already regretting not letting someone at QC handle the flash drive.

“Type faster, Oliver,” she commanded.

“I’m trying, he grunted.

Felicity sighed. “God, I wish I could just remote access your fingers right now.”

“All the chatter is not making this happen faster, Felicity,” Oliver replied through gritted teeth as he typed the commands she had given him. “And doing it this way was your idea.”

“That was before I knew you were the slowest typist alive,” Felicity said. “Okay, there,” she said. Oliver shifted his vision to see just what she was looking at. “Click on that.”

“Okay,” Oliver said, wondering just what that was supposed to do, but suddenly he was looking at a menu with relatively normal files and folders. “You did it.”

“We did it,” Felicity reminded him. “Although I will admit to being the brains of this particular operation.” She studied the layout for a moment. “Open that one. ‘Markov Device.’ That sounds vague and ominous.”

Oliver rolled his eyes, but did as she asked. The file opened and Oliver tried to make sense of the drawings and details to no avail. “What is this thing?”

Felicity shook her head. “I’m not sure. Keep scrolling.”

Oliver did as she asked.

“Wait!” Felicity shouted, pointing at the screen. “That right there! What does that say?”

“Induced seismicity. What does that mean?”

“Seismic activity from unnatural means.”

“What?”

“Earthquakes, Oliver. It means creating earthquakes.”

Oliver shook his head. “Why would Malcolm Merlyn and my mother be making an earthquake machine?”

“I don’t know.”

“What the hell is my mother involved in?”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My name is bettername2come. After nine months of completely abandoning this story, I returned with one goal in mind - to not be the chick that leaves half-written fics on AO3.

Felicity took a deep breath. “Okay, let me just ask the obvious question. Could this just be some kind of project from Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences Division, to, I don’t know, increase earthquake preparedness?”

“Why would that be a secret? Increasing earthquake preparedness saves lives, effects populations across the globe, particularly in developing nations. It would be a PR goldmine, but the way my mother acted…she was disgusted by the idea. By her part in it. Why would she be? What did she do? What did Malcolm threaten her with?” He took a deep breath. “Or threaten her family with?”

“I don’t know, Oliver.”

“I need to know more.”

“I don’t disagree, but what are you going to do?”

Oliver shook his head. “I don’t know. But whatever it is, I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

*

“You were right, Oliver, I do not like this.”

“You could just leave.”

“You could just shut me out,” she countered.

“Honestly, I’d prefer not to do this alone.”

“I know. I just really think this is a terrible idea.”

“If you have a better one, I’m listening.”

Felicity sighed. “Just – just be careful.”

“It’s my mother, Felicity. Of course, I’ll be careful.”

“It’s not her I’m worried about,” she muttered.

Oliver couldn’t blame her. Especially not when he was rappelling down a skyscraper with a bow and arrow, ready to commit a felony and about to face off against his mother with only a hood and grease paint to conceal his identity. But there was no way he could get this information as himself, not when she was convinced she was protecting him and Thea by keeping Malcolm’s secrets. He paused for a moment, hanging at the forty-first floor. For a moment, he considered climbing the rope back up and never

“Are you going to leave me literally hanging in suspense?” Felicity’s voice whispered in his ear. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

The tiniest smile crossed Oliver’s lips as he shoved off the side of the building, releasing more of the line so that he swung in a downward arc, creating enough momentum to break the glass window of his mother’s thirty-ninth floor office.

Felicity flinched as the glass shattered around Oliver, but thankfully, he seemed to be unhurt as stuck a perfect landing without even tangling himself in the blinds.  

Moira jumped from her chair, preparing to run for the door, but Oliver nocked an arrow, aiming at her with a twinge of guilt. Moira froze in place.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“What are you plotting with Malcolm Merlyn?”

Shock flickered across Moira’s features before she pasted on a more neutral expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s lying,” Felicity said.

“The Markov device,” Oliver said in a gruff voice. “I know Malcolm created it. What I don’t know is what he wants to do with it.”

Moira stared at him for a moment, perhaps in shock that he knew as much he did, before suddenly lunging for the landline on her desk. Oliver fired an arrow, shattering the phone and sending the remains flying to the floor. Moira let out a yelp of surprise.

“Don’t move! It’s Malcolm I want, not you. Tell the truth.”

“If I tell you what you want to know, he will kill me. He will kill my children, my husband. So if you’re going to kill me then get it over with because it’s better than what Malcolm’s planning.”

Oliver lowered his bow. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Faster than Felicity would’ve expected a fifty-year-old woman to move, Moira ducked down behind the desk, yanking a gun from the drawer and firing off several shots. Oliver dove to the floor, but not before one of the bullets ripped into his shoulder barely missing his neck. Felicity cried out in the pain that Oliver fought to ignore as he struggled to his feet and made his way back to the broken window. Distantly he could hear his mother calling 911 to report an intruder. He shot a grappling hook arrow at a nearby building, swinging away and making a graceless landing. He managed to run a few blocks before he couldn’t move anymore. He leaned back against a building, sliding to the ground, pressing a weak hand against his wound.

“Oliver! Oliver! Don’t you dare shut me out!”

Oliver laughed weakly. “Don’t think I could if I wanted to.”

“You’re really hurt, you need to call 911.”

“Mom already did,” he said. “Don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Neither is you bleeding out in a dirty alleyway.”

“I’ve been through worse,” Oliver said through clenched teeth.

“That is the opposite of comforting!” Felicity shouted. She felt a wave of dizziness from Oliver that forced her to sit down. “No, don’t you do that. Don’t you dare pass out on me!” Abrupt darkness in her mind followed by the severing of their link told her that he had.

“No. No, no, no, no, no.” Three thousand miles away, Oliver Queen was bleeding out in an alley, with cops on the lookout and no way to get him help without alerting the authorities. _Shit. Shit._ In a panic, she sat down at her desk, her fingers flying over the keyboard before she could fully register just what she was searching for, the feeling of control surging through her. Yes, this she could do this was how she could help. How she could get Oliver help. She reached for her phone, dialing the number that she’d found. She waited impatiently as the phone rang one, two, three times.

Finally, a deep voice answered the phone. “Hello?”

“John Diggle?”

“Yes, who is this?” John asked.

“My name’s Felicity. You don’t know me, I’m a friend of Oliver’s.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Felicity, but I’m not working tonight and Oliver really shouldn’t have given you this number.” He started to hang up but Felicity interrupted.

“Wait! Oliver’s hurt! He needs help!”

John froze with his thumb hovering over the end call icon. “Then you should hang up and call 911.”

“I can’t do that. Trust me, I would if I could, but I can’t. It would only make things worse.”

John sighed. It figured Oliver was involved in some things he shouldn’t have been. He’d been more than a little secretive the whole time Diggle had worked for him, more so the past month. Still, keeping the client alive was part of the job. He was definitely asking for a pay raise after this. “What do you need from me?”

“You have medical training, right”

John sighed. “I do.”

“Then I need you to grab a first aid kit.”

John shifted the phone as he searched for his med kit. “Okay, if you want me to help Oliver then I need to know where I’m going and what I’m walking into.”

“He’s in an alley. Four blocks east of Queen Consolidated. He’s been shot. Left shoulder. I’m not sure how bad it us, but he’s lost consciousness.”

 _Not good_. “All right, just keep pressure on the wound until I can get there.”

“I can’t. I’m not with him. He’s alone.”

“Then how do you – never mind, I’ll call you back when I’m with him.”

“Wait, don’t-“

“I’ll call you back, Felicity,” Diggle repeated. “I have your number. He’s going to be okay, but you can’t do anything for him right now, so just sit tight.” He hung up the phone and rushed out of his apartment, keys and med kit in hand.

Felicity squeezed her eyes shut as she clutched the phone to her chest. She focused her thoughts on Oliver and reached out, trying to reestablish their link. It didn’t come.


	11. Chapter 11

John got in his car, heading in the direction of Queen Consolidated. He hadn’t been on the road long when he spotted blue and red lights in his rearview mirror. A few seconds later two police cruisers sped past him. He hit the gas a little harder, hoping they wouldn’t get to Oliver before he did. He really should have asked that Felicity for more details than he had gotten, but the thought playing through his mind had been “protect the client.” Frustrating though Oliver could be, Diggle had no desire to see him bleeding out in dirty alleyway. He wondered why Felicity had told him not to call the police. Oliver must have been doing something illegal, but what could it have been? Something to do with the Vertigo being sold at Verdant last week? Unlikely. Oliver had seemed genuinely angry that people had been dealing drugs in his club, and even then Diggle could hardly imagine that being arrested for drug use would be worse than dying of a gunshot wound, particularly when it wasn’t Oliver’s first arrest (not that any of them had stuck). But whatever it was, the cops heading that way meant that despite efforts to keep this secret, the police were onto something here and the last thing Diggle needed was to get arrested as an accessory to whatever illegal dealings Oliver had gotten himself into. Which meant that he was going to have to be very careful and very lucky.

Fortunately, the police were gathered directly in front of Queen Consolidated and didn’t seem too concerned about the surrounding area at the moment. He followed Felicity’s instructions and drove directly into the alley, not eager to get caught carrying a bleeding, unconscious billionaire playboy to his car. He hopped out of the car, searching the ground for the other man. Diggle almost missed him – the green of Oliver’s clothing made him nearly indistinguishable from the green dumpster he was slumped against, and his face was cast in shadow. No, wait, that wasn’t shadow. Was that – was that grease paint he was wearing? And – and a bow beside him? What was this? Why was Oliver dressed up like Robin Hood? Diggle shook his head. There was so much about this boy he did not understand. But he was definitely asking for a pay raise after this.

Diggle knelt down, checking Oliver’s pulse. He breathed a sight of relief when he found it, weak and erratic but there. Moving quickly, he began lifting Oliver up and into the backseat of his car, trying not to jostle him too badly as he did. The quiet moan of pain Diggle heard, along with the fluttering of Oliver’s eyes, told him he hadn’t been completely successful.

Felicity gasped as her shoulder – Oliver’s shoulder – erupted in pain that spread throughout her entire body. She let out a slightly crazed laugh of joy at the sudden proof that Oliver was still alive. She tried to focus on Oliver’s vision, but she could just barely make out the form of a man through Oliver’s half opened eyes. She sensed that he was being moved and heard a car door slam before they began speeding away. She reached for her phone and redialed John Diggle’s number.

“Hello?” he answered on the first ring, knowing who it was without glancing at the caller ID.

“You said you would call as soon as you found him,” she said accusingly.

“Calm, Felicity,” Oliver muttered quietly. John wondered just how he knew who was on the phone, and what exactly he was supposed to say to calm her when Felicity’s voice answered back sharply in his ear.

“I am being calm,” she snapped. “This is about as calm as it gets when your friends are shot.”

“You can hear him?” John asked.

“I – um, really good ears,” Felicity responded. “It makes up for the terrible vision. Where are you taking him?”

“Honestly, I haven’t decided that yet,” John answered. “But police were swarming his family’s company, so I figured first priority was getting him away from that, since he apparently was up to something he shouldn’t have been, or you wouldn’t have told me not to call 911.”

“The club,” Oliver groaned.

“The club?” Felicity asked. “I really don’t think you’re in any position to start dancing the night away.”

“Under the club. Basement. Supplies.”

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Because of course you have a secret emergency room under your nightclub.”

Diggle shook his head in confusion at the pair’s conversation. He really wished finding Oliver bleeding out and wearing makeup had been the weirdest part of his night.

*

Verdant was fortunately closed at ten o’clock on a Tuesday night, so Diggle had no problem getting Oliver inside and to the basement. He had hung up the phone to carry Oliver in, but that didn’t stop Oliver from muttering to Felicity like she was standing right beside him. Diggle wondered if that was a bad sign, a hallucination or other side effect caused by the blood loss. He laid Oliver down on a table and began searching for the supplies Oliver had mentioned. In a wooden box in the corner, John found bandages, forceps, needles and surgical thread, along with a large number of antibiotics and painkillers. He searched until he found lidocaine and a syringe, setting to work on the bullet wound, which had thankfully missed the carotid artery, but only just. He had just finished stitching up the injury when Felicity called again.

“How is he?”

“Not bleeding,” Diggle answered. “But are you going to tell me why I just performed emergency surgery in a dance club basement rather than letting an actual surgeon take care of it?”

Felicity sighed. “Check the news.”

John gave a quick glance at his still-unconscious patient before heading upstairs. He turned on the TV above the bar and flipped to Channel 52 to see Bethany Snow and a police sketch that bore little resemblance to Oliver Queen. But knowing what he did, he was certain who the archer in the sketch was. “Police are reporting that the suspect is approximately six feet tall and may be identified by the bullet wound in his left shoulder. An attorney for Queen Consolidated has stated that Moira Queen was uninjured in the attack and reacted out of fear for her life. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Any leads to his whereabouts should be reported to the Starling City Police immediately.”

“Are you telling me that Oliver attacked his own mother? Why would he do that?”

“Go back downstairs and ask him yourself. He’s awake.”

Trusting she was right, Diggle turned and went back to the basement, where, sure enough, Oliver was lying on the table, his head turned towards the door, awaiting Diggle’s arrival.

“We need to talk.”


End file.
